Canvas Hack: What to do when it's over
Well, this semester has been a wild ride! While all those annoying ads pitched ideas for "what to do with all your free time at home," we were rewriting and rethinking assignments and student interactions week by week.
But we made it. It's all over but the finals. So, now what?
About this time of the semester, when the tsunamis of final papers come crashing in, I start thinking about next year. (I know. I'm working on it.)
Here's how I'm easing out of the semester and setting myself up for a less eventful fall:
Give students a great sendoff. I'm sending a "you did it!" email and exit assignment to remind students they just did something rather heroic. Their world shifted sideways halfway through the term, and they had to make sense of coursework that suddenly seemed to be a distant clamor. They may feel like they just dragged through, or didn't do their best work, but they made it. Reframe & celebrate.
Capture my best stuff. Before I purge my emails and archive my Canvas shell, I'm going to save those announcements, witty comments on assignments, student feedback on what worked and what didn't. Cut and paste! (By the time I'm pulling my fall syllabus together, these will be a haze of fond memories spread across multiple Canvas shells. I'm pulling it together now, as it's still happening.)
Note it/Tweak it.
You know those times during the semester when something's going really, really well (or really, really awful) and you think, "If only we could---" When I get the uncontrollable urge to plan next semester while this one's still going--I start a page in my Canvas development shell called "Notes."
Lose this reading. Put a link to info about X in this module. Revise this rubric ("reply" = "peer review"). Move this unit up to Week 3. Rewrite these assignment instructions. Find that clip from the movie mentioned in that podcast.
*Note: If I find my self actually creating materials instead of grading finals, I know I've gone too far.
Make a copy of the gradebook.
Watch ScaredSenseless? Tips for Calming Students in Online Courses, a webinar that gives surprisingly practical things to do before, during, and after the semester to make your remote class less stressful for students.
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Links and Resources
Have you enrolled in the Mental Health Counseling Team's new Canvas Shell?
Go2Knowledge Online Database for Professonal Development is available (create a free account and use discount code miramar20 to order live webinars.
Highly recommend: The Mixtape: Deep Teaching Online beyond Zoom and Teach like a YouTuber: Off-Camera Online Teaching Options
Upcoming Webinars:
- Serving Students with Basic Needs Insecurities During COVD 19, May 20, 2020 10:00 AM
- Share Showcase – Teaching Online Science Labs: Astronomy, May 20, 2020, 1:30 PM
- Accessibility During the COVID-19 Era - Why It Matters More Than Ever, May 21, 2020 02:00 PM ET
- Equity-Minded Mathematics Instruction, May 21, 2020 12:00 PM
FAST Track Guides on Motivation, from Dr. Linda Lee, Professor Emeritus of English
5 Myths About Remote Teaching in the COVID-19 Crisis
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CanvasCon Online is completely free as well. Register now and save the date for October 15, 2020.
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